Eco-activists suspect that the Cabinet of Ministers "gave the green light" for the privatization of at least one of the 38 forest plots in the Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, with a total area of more than 17 hectares.
These areas were allocated for construction and agriculture, and most of them fell into private ownership, reports the "Ukrainian Nature Conservarionn Group – UNCG" on Facebook.
UNCG discovered a possible violation thanks to the analysis of the forest map of Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr region.
Eco-activists explained that in order to transfer forestry lands into private ownership with a change in their purpose, as stipulated by the Land Code of Ukraine, the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers is required.
"We have reasonable doubts that the Cabinet of Ministers gave the green light to private ownership of at least one of the plots found within the agroforestry farms. Otherwise, these actions are interpreted as a violation of the Land Code," the message informs.
The UNCG also emphasized that this is a widespread problem for Ukraine. So, in 2021, they found similar violations in the Kyiv region.
"Then we managed to find 1,459 hectares of deforested areas," the ecoactivists said.
They appealed to the prosecutor's office to look into this situation and return the forests to communal ownership.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the resolution, which provides reforming the forest industry, in particular, the unification of 158 state forest farms into a single enterprise "Forests of Ukraine".
As EcoPolitic previously reported, employees of NABU, SAP and KMDA are in Kyiv prevented illegal alienation in private property of Obolonsky Island with an area of 147,700 square meters, located next to Natalka Park.
